I'll be the first to admit that I've probably had more than my share of good experiences on Ebay. Living in a place like Tonopah Nevada, Ebay has opened windows and doors this country boy would have never dreamed of 15 years ago.

On October 6 I bid and paid $1002.76 for a sale that combined a Gold Rim 8 1/4 Dagor and a 14" Commercial Ektar. Both were on Deardorff boards. Seller states they are in good shape. Belonged to her hot shot NY city photog / dad.

They show up about 10 days later and both are full of fungus that is bad enough to have attacked the glass, the Commercial Ektar is all scratched to hell from improper cleaning, and even worse (if possible) the Dagor is seperating at the cement which appears to be the newer non balsam type.

I contact her and tell her the sale is untenable, the lenses have a minimal value equal to the parts values of the shutters. She responds they looked OK to her and that meets her sales criteria for good condition.

I contact PayPal and escalate to a claim as I say there will be no possible solution between the parties. PayPal gets in the middle and the seller agrees to a refund if I will send the items back. I do. Insured and delivery confirmation. She moves to Tennessee closes her accounts etc etc but the lenses finally get forwarded to East Fulton Tennessee and the insurance is signed for.

She tells paypal she never got them and then never says another word. Time goes by and PayPal demands to hear from her in 10 days or they decide the case. 10 days go by and I check in.......

PayPal gives me $200 bucks. Sorry pal, that's all PayPal insures this sale for. I'm out $800 and apparently there's nothing I can do about it. Hell I could have realized more than that selling them as junk! Somdbody could pound the bad cells out of the dagor and put better ones in and voila!

Is there anything I can do besides this rant! This is pretty frustrating. I had no idea that if the $$ is spent and the account is closed PayPal screws you.